Biden shifts to debate damage control
New York Times editorial board calls for Biden to quit 2024 race
Also in today’s special Saturday edition of ‘Regular Order’ for June 29, 2024:
Democratic silence on debate speaks loudly.
Supreme Court won’t keep Bannon out of jail.
Trump immunity decision to come on Monday.
BIDEN. A day after a widely panned debate performance, President Joe Biden launched a fresh round of attacks against former President Donald Trump on Friday, trying to turn the page and move on with the 2024 campaign. It came amid hand wringing among Democrats, with some convinced that Biden should step aside and let someone else try to stop Trump in November.
TAR HEEL. "I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know how to tell the truth," Biden told supporters at a rally in North Carolina. "I know I'm not a young man - to state the obvious," Biden said to the crowd.
ENERGY. Unlike at the debate where he seemed tentative at times, Biden was his old forceful self on the campaign trail. But the speech didn’t wipe away what everyone saw on Thursday night, as top Democrats tried to remind everyone of the binary choice between Trump and Biden.
OBAMA. "Bad debate nights happen," said former President Barack Obama. "But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself."
HILLARY. Also weighing in publicly was Hillary Clinton - who lost to Trump in 2016. "It's a choice between someone who cares about you — your rights, your prospects, your future — versus someone who's only in it for himself," Clinton said.
GRAY LADY. While the Biden campaign tried to paint a brighter picture, the New York Times editorial board issued a call for Biden to give up his bid for a second term. "The President appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant," the editorial board wrote of Biden. "He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term."
REACTION. Do I expect Joe Biden to listen to the New York Times editorial board? Of course not. But it will spur a lot of discussion, especially since there was already some concern among Democrats about the Biden campaign.
CONGRESS. What were Democrats saying on Friday about the Biden debate debacle? Not much, as many tried to stay as far away from reporters as possible. "Absolute crickets," was how one of my colleagues described it.
NO PANIC. With three votes early on Friday morning in the U.S. House, not many Democrats stopped to talk to reporters. One of the few who was corralled was Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) - his message to fellow Democrats was simple: “Stay the course. Chill out.”
STAY THE COURSE. Only a handful of others echoed that assessment publicly. "Last night wasn’t President Biden’s best performance but we know the President to be a capable and competent leader," said Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA).
KEYSTONE. Also sticking with Biden was Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who invoked his own debate debacle from 2022. "I refuse to join the Democratic vultures," Fetterman tweeted on Friday. "No one knows more than me that a rough debate is not the sum total of the person and their record."
TWITTER. I love to watch social media at times like this, because it gives you a great real-time insight into what lawmakers are thinking. And when it came to the debate, it was almost like Twitter had been blacked out for Democrats. Republicans were tweeting like mad - Democrats were doing anything but.
GOP. On the other side, it was a flood of comments from Republicans. I mean, what could be easier right now? GOP lawmakers can ignore the wacky things that Donald Trump said in Thursday night's debate, and just keep teeing off on Biden's performance. And that's exactly what they did on Friday.
PILING ON. "The 90 minute debate was terrible for Joe Biden," said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY). "Last night was a wake up call for the country," added Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). "Joe Biden is not mentally fit to be President of the United States," said Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC).
WHAT'S NEXT. What do I think is going to happen with Biden? I really can't see him dropping out of the race, unless things start to go sideways in the polls - or inside the Democratic Party. So far, there haven't been major cracks. But the toothpaste is out of the tube right now.
CHOICE. As I noted above from Obama and Hillary, Democrats are certainly going to try to remind people in the near term that this is a binary choice between Biden and Trump. I can see that working for some voters, even as I understand the desire for someone new on the Democratic side.
SOMEONE ELSE. But let me say something about that desire. It probably doesn't matter who Democrats might choose instead of Biden. There will always be something wrong, no matter what. That new candidate is not going to magically win over voters who say they're concerned about Trump.
FACT CHECK. Let's imagine for a moment that Biden had a normal debate on Thursday, and we weren't talking about a bad performance. There would still be one note which would get a lot of attention, and that was his errant claim that he 'doesn't have any troops dying anywhere in the world.'
AFGHANISTAN. Obviously, that's not true - given the deaths of 13 Americans, killed in a terrorist bombing by an Islamic State group as the U.S. left Afghanistan in 2021. "They are American heroes that we will not forget unlike this Administration," said Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK).
BORDER. I heard from a number of people asking why I didn't point out Biden's miscue when he said he had been endorsed by the Border Patrol. It's because Biden immediately corrected himself, to say that the Border Patrol union had endorsed a bipartisan immigration bill.
BANNON. The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal from ex-Trump aide Steve Bannon, who was trying to stay out of prison starting next week. Bannon had asked to avoid jail time while he appeals a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress - when he defied a subpoena from the January 6 committee.
ORDER. Without comment, the Court simply stated that Bannon's appeal was going nowhere. "The application for release pending appeal presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is denied."
TIMING. Bannon was found guilty nearly two years ago - in July 2022 - and has been fighting his jail term in the courts ever since. The Jan. 6 committee wanted information from Bannon about what he knew pertaining to Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
JANUARY 6. The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that federal prosecutors had wrongly used a financial crimes law to charge a number of Jan. 6 defendants with obstructing an 'official proceeding.' You can read the 6-3 decision at this link.
IMPACT. The decision could certainly lead to some charges being dismissed against those convicted of Jan. 6 charges - but it may not exonerate most defendants, who are often convicted of multiple offenses related to the attack on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.
TRUMP. At his own post-debate rally in Virginia, Trump immediately grabbed onto that decision and called for the release of those convicted of Jan. 6 crimes - as he again called them 'patriots.' Those people who attacked the Capitol are not patriots. Everyone knows that.
SUPREME COURT. Instead of wrapping up work yesterday, the Chief Justice announced that the U.S. Supreme Court will finish its term on Monday - that's when we expect a ruling on whether former President Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution related to the January 6 investigation.
DOCKET. The Trump case is one of a handful of decisions still to be delivered by the High Court. While we don’t know for sure, the circumstantial evidence seems to indicate that the Justices didn’t want their decision getting wrapped up in the Trump-Biden debate.
RAP SHEET. A New York man has pleaded guilty to assaulting police on Jan. 6. James Weeks was part of a group of rioters who attacked officers in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, as he hit one officer with his fists and tried to grab another. "Shove it up your ass! You fat fuck," Weeks said to police at one point.
MUSE OF HISTORY. June 29, 1974. Under pressure at home over Watergate, President Nixon was in Russia on this date for a summit with Leonid Brezhnev. The two men signed a U.S.-Soviet trade deal, and then flew to Brezhnev's beach house in the Crimea for further talks on arms control. "If nothing can be agreed upon, we had better learn it now," Nixon said. After over two hours of talks, it was time for something else. "It is time to go out on the water," Brezhnev said.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House next has votes on July 8.
The Senate next has votes on July 8.
Check President Biden’s schedule.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.
Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com
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Thanks for a weekend report. I can't imagine how many hours your work week must be.
As the latest GOP wet dream comes to an end, this is a good time to remember that in case the president becomes unable to perform the duties of the office, the 25th Amendment, passed in the aftermath of the JFK assassination, provides a constitutional option. (That was mentioned during Trump's time in office, and fortunately no one gave it a second thought.)
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4732619/user-clip-laurence-tribe-explains-25th-amendment
If Biden was replaced at the convention, what happens with Ohio ballot? Isn't that the state you shared that closes the window before the convention date?